Some Favorite Genealogy Websites

I have been absent from my blog. I started teaching my Advanced African American Genealogy course at Howard County Community College, and I’ve spent the last few weeks revamping my class from last semester. I’m always excited about the class and meeting my students. So I haven’t had alot of time to post lately, but I plan to remedy that this weekend. For now, I thought I’d share some of my most favorite, coolest websites in the world. Well, maybe that’s a little strong, but these are some that I tend to go back to again & again:

• Rootsweb Books We Own: Ask someone to do a lookup for you. And when you purchase books, do lookups for others. I am registered for several books and I do it all the time. LOVE THIS.
• Historical Census Browser: Great site for adding statistics to your family history write-up. Wanna know how many freed blacks there were in Montgomery County, MD in 1860? You can find that here. How many slaveowners in 1850? Yep, that too.
• Jackson-Davis Collection of African-American Educational Photographs: Some hidden jewels–pictures of black schools in the South. Maybe your ancestor’s school?
• Railroad Maps Collection: A great collection of maps from the Library of Congress. Understand what railways ran through your ancestor’s area…may give you some clues to migration.
• Library of Virginia Chancery Court Index and IMAGES: Online original records. Court records. It simply gets no better than this (all counties are not completed yet).
• Homecoming: The Story of Black Farmers: That’s what most of our ancestors were. This site has an incredible amount of information and resources.
• Census Maps: When were those counties formed anyway?
• The Geography of Slavery in Virginia: Runaway slave ads from VA (mostly 18th century). Heartwrenching.
• Slave Letter Collection at Duke University: No words required.
• The Transatlantic Slave Trade: Breaking the Silence: One of the best online timeline/overview of the slave trade I’ve ever read.

Hope you find some little nuggets above that you find interesting. If you know of a great website you’ve utilized for your genealogy research (besides the major ones we all know: Library of Congress, Cyndi’s list, NARA, Ancestry, Footnote, all the newspaper ones, etc.) please do share in the comments here.

Robyn

I am an engineer by day, but my true passion lies in genealogy. I have been a researcher, writer, lecturer and teacher for over twenty years. This blog is where I share family history methods, resources, tips and advice, with an emphasis on slave research, slavery and its aftermath. This lifelong quest has helped me to better know my family’s past. I’ve taken back– reclaimed– some of that lost memory, especially that of my enslaved ancestors. I hope you’ll sign up to receive my posts—if you do, you’ll get a free PDF with some of my favorite tips! And please do share posts that interest you.